Brand new tatter :)

[Pogo]

Hello all!
I just began tatting about a week ago and I have a LOT of questions! I began tatting by looking up what it was after seeing some handmade jewelry on etsy, then purchasing a shuttle at Hobby Lobby and just...trying it out. Not the best idea, because I'm starting to get frustrated. I can do a double stitch and do picots and make rings, my problem is after I make a ring and I want to make another and join the picots, I can't get them to be next to each other. This is hard to explain but I make a ring, then begin my next ring, but I don't know where to place the first ring in order for it to be next to the new one once I close the new ring. I tried putting it between my forefinger and thumb then wrapping the shuttle thread around my fingers and going, and I also tried wrapping the length hanging from the first ring around my hand then placing it between my fingers. It's driving me insane and I just started! :furious: This may seem like a silly question and I'm sorry, but like I said no one is teaching me, so I have no one else to ask about my tatting.
Thanks to anyone who can help me :D
-Pogo

[HJ Hess]

Pogo,
Could you post photos of your results so we can analyze?
.

[BlueDode]

Pogo:
Are you getting the knot to "flip" or reflect to the ring around your hand? you make the wrap with the shuttle thread, then "flip"/reflect it so the ring of thread around your hand forms a wrap around the straightened shuttle thread. This subject has come up before, both in a thread and in the chatbox -- you are not alone.
YouTube may have some video showing this -- can anyone help with some links here? Per HJ Hess / Hegla's suggestion above, please post an image of your work if you can, so we can see what the case is, OK?

[PattyD]

You have asked an entirely reasonable question. You want your rings to line up like 2 letter O's next to each other. OO. They are very close so there should only be a little bitsy bit of thread between the last DS on the first ring and the first DS on the second ring. Since the DS is a KNOT, it has to go exactly where you want it. So. Hold the first DS in the pinch (between your thumb and forefinger of the left hand) with the shuttle thread to the right. Now wrap the thread around your left hand for the second ring. Make the first half of a DS and make sure that there is only the width of a DS of free thread leading up to it. Finish the DS, now it is locked. Finish your second ring. They should be nestled next to each other.

[Linda S Davies]

Hello Pogo,
I have a short video on YouTube for absolute beginners that might help you. Click on this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJa5FQQy_gY and it will take you straight there.

[Thimble Lady]

Very interesting and well done. I enjoyed it.

[Pogo]

I feel like such a dork! Thank you all for the replies, I'm sorry but I haven't gotten online in a little while, so I just came back around to the site. Apparently, I was tatting backwards! I had threaded my shuttle clockwise and was basically making the DS with the shuttle thread instead of getting the flip to happen, so every time I started a new ring, it wasn't lining up close to the first. Well, I've got the gist now after receiving a very informative book I ordered in my frustration from Handy Hands. I'm on to chains and all sorts of other good stuff now! :D

[Lynn]

Hi, Pogo. I'm too late to help you with this query, but you've got some really good answers here. Just chiming in to encourage you to continue asking questions. Of course, the answer is rather simple once you understand it, but the only dork question is the one you need an answer to and won't ask! We're here to help in any way we can. If you have a question about a procedure, chances are pretty good someone else needs that information too. And the information, as demonstrated here, is available. So, by asking your questions, you help not only yourself, but that "someone else" who also needs to know and hasn't got around to asking yet. So keep tatting, and keep asking questions. That's the only way to learn.

[PattyD]

:biggrin: :cool: :thmbup: :biggrin: :wink: :happydance: :ok: :lol: :yahoo: :partytime: :sunnysmile:

[littlebev]

Hi Pogo
Keep trying. Your first efforts may be loose but once you get the flip the correct tension will follow
Happy Tatting